Nuclear scrap hauling may take 125 trucks a day over next 3 years

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



Nuclear scrap hauling may take 125 trucks a day over next 3 years

Galena council approves nuclear plant

Fire Sets Off Ammunition At Progress Energy Nuclear Plant

India Says Nuclear Plant Safe After Being Hit By Tsunami

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Nuclear scrap hauling may take 125 trucks a day over next 3 years



OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) - The number of trucks dumping radioactive 

scrap at the government's nuclear landfill could jump to 125 a day 

over the next three years as officials try to expedite cleanup 

projects at the former K-25 uranium enrichment plant.



"Based on the latest information we're receiving, at the height of 

the effort they will be receiving one truck every five minutes," said 

John Owsley, the state's environmental oversight director in Oak 

Ridge. "That is a significant increase."



The landfill, built a couple of years ago for a broad range of wastes 

generated during the Department of Energy's cleanup operations, has 

disposal cells with multiple liners and a drainage system for long-

term environmental safety.



Around the same time the landfill was built, DOE reworked its 

schedule under an agreement with environmental regulators and 

promised to finish most of the high-priority projects by the end of 

2008.



Taking steps to speed up the work - such as increasing the number of 

dump trucks from 55 to more than 100 - is expected to save taxpayers 

millions of dollars as well as prevent damage to the environment.



Most of the junk - ranging from old cars to motor wiring - comes from 

the K-25 plant. Some has been there since the 1950s, but the majority 

arrived in the 1960s and '70s when the uranium-enrichment facilities 

were upgraded.



To handle the additional trucks, officials said a special haul road 

is being constructed so that trucks can go directly from K-25 to the 

landfill several miles away without clogging public highways.



"We have a waste forecast that shows that peak is going to be 

increasing," said Dave Whitehead of Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's 

environmental manager.



The first two disposal cells at the landfill were designed and built 

by Duratek Federal Services under a subcontract with Bechtel Jacobs. 

Duratek also operates the landfill.



The combined capacity of those two units is 400,000 cubic yards. By 

the end of October, about 193,000 cubic yards of waste had been 

deposited there, and work is under way to expand the landfill.



Another subcontractor won a contract to construct two additional 

cells. Those cells will triple the landfill's capacity to about 1.2 

million cubic yards, officials said.



Waste disposal is expected to continue until 2015, after which the 

landfill will be capped and monitored. The federal government is 

paying $1 million a year into a trust fund that will be used to 

monitor conditions after closure.

------------------



Galena council approves nuclear plant



ANCHORAGE (AP) - Galena city officials have approved plans to build a 

10-megawatt nuclear power plant there as a test case in providing 

cheap power to rural communities.



City representatives and Toshiba Corp. officials will now develop an 

application to federal regulators for a license for the small-scale 

reactor near the Yukon River community, a process that could take 

several years.



The reactor unit would be 50 feet to 60 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet in 

diameter. It would be built outside of Alaska and be encased in 

several tons of concrete not to be opened during its operating life, 

estimated at 30 years.



The plant, called a battery, would be able to supply the community's 

electricity for about a quarter of the cost of diesel fuel, according 

to a U.S. Department of Energy study.



The 4S reactor unit is referred to as a battery because it does not 

have moving parts, and once installed, its fuel will not need to be 

replaced as in conventional nuclear reactors.



The Galena city council directed city manager Marvin Yoder to 

"establish a process and timeline leading to evaluations, industrial 

partners, and financial and contractual arrangements necessary to 

bring the economic and environmental benefits of the 4S to Galena."



The council's resolution directed Yoder to work with the community's 

Washington, D.C.-based attorney and Toshiba in developing the 

application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.



Licensing will be an involved process that will take several years 

and substantial funding by Toshiba, Yoder said.



Toshiba has offered to install the reactor at Galena free of cost if 

the licensing is approved as a commercial demonstration of the 

nuclear battery in a remote location.



If the technology is approved for use in the United States, Toshiba 

believes there will be opportunities for sales worldwide, and 

elsewhere in rural Alaska, according to Robert Chaney, a researcher 

with Science Applications International Corp.



SAIC coordinated the Department of Energy study of long-term energy 

supply options for Galena, including the Toshiba battery. The 

University of Alaska and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental 

Laboratory worked with SAIC in the study.



Chaney said the DOE study weighed nuclear power against other ways of 

providing Galena with improved energy, including more efficient 

diesel generation, a small coal-fired power plant, and wind, solar 

and hydropower from the nearby Yukon River.



Wind, solar and hydropower were determined not to be practical 

options for Galena, Chaney told an Alaska Miners Association group in 

a Dec. 17 briefing on the project.



If the nuclear battery went into operation in 2010, by 2020 it could 

supply electricity to Galena for 5 to 14 cents a kilowatt hour, 

assuming the community pays only operating costs, the analysis 

showed.



Galena's power is now 28 cents per kilowatt hour.



The costs could vary depending on the level of security federal 

regulators require at the site, Chaney said.



The plant would supply far more electricity than Galena now uses, but 

could enable local residents to convert their home heating from homes 

from expensive fuel oil to more affordable electricity and operate 

greenhouses to grow produce year-round, Chaney said.



The risks include the use of liquid sodium as a heat transfer medium 

and the long-term disposal of the radioactive waste, according to Ron 

Johnson, a professor of engineering at University of Alaska Fairbanks 

who is working with engineering aspects of the DOE study.



Johnson said small nuclear plants may not be the answer for rural 

power, regardless of the fate of the Galena experiment.



"If the technology is successfully deployed in Galena, its economic 

viability in other Alaska villages and elsewhere depends on the 

actual life cycle costs, which are yet to be quantified," he said.



Alaska miners are interested in the Galena project because if the NRC 

approves Toshiba's proposal, larger nuclear batteries could provide 

power to remote mines.

-----------------



Fire Sets Off Ammunition At Progress Energy Nuclear Plant



CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--An early Monday fire in a weapons storage locker 

at a Progress Energy Inc. (PGN) nuclear power plant set off 

ammunition and brought out local firefighters, the company said in a 

report to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.



The fire in the administration building at the Robinson nuclear plant 

in South Carolina occurred in a "small arms locker," Progress told 

the NRC. Commercial nuclear power plants employ large, armed security 

forces.



"Onsite security detected smoke and heard ammunition rounds 

discharging from a locked door small arms locker," the report said.



The fire caused no injuries and didn't affect operations at the 710-

megawatt facility, utility spokeswoman Dana Yeganian said. The 

administration building isn't connected to the reactor itself.



The utility declared an "unusual event" with the NRC, because the 

local fire department responded to the fire and because the fire 

lasted "greater than 10 minutes," according to the report.



The fire was extinguished by the time the fire department arrived. 

Progress said it's asked local police to send an arson investigator, 

but said there weren't immediate signs of foul play.



"Security believes this to be an isolated event with no evidence of 

malevolent actions," the utility said in its report to the NRC.



Progress owns and operates the Robinson plant, located near 

Hartsville in north-central South Carolina.

---------------



India Says Nuclear Plant Safe After Being Hit By Tsunami



NEW DELHI (AP)--India's government said Tuesday that a nuclear power 

plant that was damaged by tidal waves Sunday in southern India is 

safe and there is no threat of radiation.



"There has been inaccurate speculation on the effect of the tsunami 

on Kalpakkam. The basic facilities of the reactor are safe and 

unaffected in any manner," National Security Adviser J.N. Dixit said.



The power plant in Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu state was shut down after 

some parts were flooded during Sunday's disaster.



"Facilities of the reactor haven't been affected in any manner. They 

are safe. They have only been shut down so that clearing can be done, 

water can be removed and things can be put back to normalcy," Dixit 

said.



"There is no danger of any radiation," he said, adding that Prime 

Minister Manmohan Singh has asked for a daily briefing on the 

situation at the plant, near the Tamil Nadu capital Madras.



"The only inundation was in the pits on the coastal area and in the 

pump house because of sea water intake. And there are facilities for 

draining them out and that process is on," he said.



Dixit said the prime minister has also asked Atomic Energy Commission 

Chairman Anil Kakodkar, who inspected the plant Monday, to stay in 

Kalpakkam to monitor the situation.



Dixit said 61 people died in townships and villages surrounding the 

plant, of which 31 worked at the plant. Most of the deaths occurred 

in churches near the sea front while attending Sunday prayers.



----------------------------------------------------------------

Sandy Perle 

Senior Vice President, Technical Operations 

Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc. 

2652 McGaw Avenue

Irvine, CA 92614



Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714 Extension 2306 

Fax:(949) 296-1144



Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/ 

Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/ 



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